The Uncommon Common Tern: Tracking Movement for Conservation Planning

Photo by Laura Erickson

The Common Tern is listed as threatened or endangered in six Great Lake States bordering the Great Lakes, including Minnesota (threatened). Little is known about prey availability, seasonal movement patterns and non-breeding habitat requirements of Common Terns breeding on Lake Superior and other Great Lakes. Using data loggers, researchers can track both wider range and local movement of the birds to identify where birds are staging and wintering and also be able to determine important foraging locations near their breeding colonies in Lake Superior. How can this information be used to identify factors that could potentially affect survival and productivity? Learn about the project plans for 2017.

Annie Bracey is currently a PhD student in the Conservation Sciences Program at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a researcher at the Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth, MN, working in the Great Lakes Region on various long-term monitoring projects for the past 6 years, studying wetland birds and amphibians. She is interested in the conservation of migratory birds and in the study of full life cycle biology and the use of tracking technologies to study migratory connectivity and movement patterns.

Minnesota Birds Speaker Series Co-sponsored by UMD Center for Environmental Education/Dept. of Applied Human Sciences